China's foreign minister Wang Yi said Beijing was willing to "safeguard" Iran's rights during talks with his counterpart Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday, as Beijing seeks to mediate in Tehran's war with the United States.

"China is also willing to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with Iran, and safeguard Iran's legitimate rights and interests," Wang told Araghchi as they met in the Chinese capital.

A damaged building in Gaza City housing about six displaced families collapsed on Wednesday morning, killing at least 12 people and injuring 15, according to Shifa Hospital. At least four children were among the dead.

Dozens of people remained missing or trapped under the rubble and video showed civil defense crews surveying the wreckage and using bulldozers to dig out people, including children.

The Trump administration is planning to deliver powerful 2,000-pound bombs to Israel as part of an upcoming arms deal, weapons that prompted such concerns about the possibility of mass casualties in Gaza that the Biden administration paused their delivery two years ago.

The $2.8 billion package includes 40,000 of the bombs, made up of 20,000 Mk84s and 20,000 BLU-117s, according to two U.S. officials and a person familiar with the plan who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss the package, which is not yet final.

At various times over the last decade, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Britain and Israel have carried out punishing air raids on Yemen's Houthi rebels — only to see them grow even stronger.

Now, as the Iran-backed Houthis advance on a key maritime chokepoint and strike Saudi oil facilities, rattling world markets, there is little that can be done to stop them that hasn't been tried before.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in Cairo on Tuesday ahead of meetings with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egyptian state-linked media said, as the kingdom reels from strikes by Yemen's Houthis.

The Saudi de facto ruler "arrived in Egypt on an official visit", reported Al-Qahera News, which is close to Egyptian intelligence services. Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said Sisi received the crown prince for his "work visit".

Saudi Arabia vowed on Tuesday to respond "firmly" to attacks by Yemen's Houthis, after the Iran-backed fighters wounded 13 people in the kingdom in an assault using ballistic missiles and drones.

The Houthis have been engaged in renewed fighting with Saudi-backed government forces since Yemen's civil war reignited in July, when the group declared a maritime blockade on Riyadh and began targeting its ships in the Red Sea.

Qatar on Tuesday warned of dire consequences if the vital Bab al-Mandab waterway were to close, after a months-long blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and recent Houthi gains on the Red Sea coast.

"The world is suffering enough with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, so we cannot also afford to add the Bab al-Mandab into that equation," Qatar foreign ministry official Ibrahim Al Hashmi told reporters.

The United Nations called Tuesday for international investigators to be granted to access to all of Gaza "to assist with evidence-gathering" as hundreds of bodies are pulled from the rubble.

"The discovery of extensive remains under the rubble in Gaza City resurfaces these concerns of war crimes and other atrocity crimes," U.N. rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil sued Columbia University on Monday, alleging it failed to address harassment against him and other members of a pro-Palestinian campus group and retaliated against them when they reported it.

The university's "deliberate indifference" led to the doxing of multiple group members and Khalil's detention by immigration agents, according to the civil rights lawsuit filed in federal court in New York City.

Two deadlines are looming for Iraq at the end of the month: the end of a decades-long U.S. military presence and the disarmament of non-state armed groups.

The U.S. withdrawal is underway, and officials say the hundreds of troops remaining in northern Iraq will be out by the Sept. 30 deadline.